About Us

We are a growing community of health care consumers who advocate for accountability and transparency.  We work to . . .

  • Reduce medical error
  • Improve the quality of care
  • Reduce preventable health care acquired infections
  • Encourage transparency throughout the health care system
  • Remove conflicts of interest that compromise patients’ access to quality health care
  • Provide oversight of health care regulatory boards and committees.
  • Support person- and family-centered care, and
  • Protect patient rights

Working in our communities, within our health care systems, and with policy leaders, CTCPS has successfully won health care improvements and thwarted efforts to restrict the rights of injured patients.

Our goal is a patient centered system that supports prevention and provides well-informed delivery of care.  Today, CTCPS continues to fight for better, quality care and the protection of injured patients’ rights through education, accountability, and grassroots and online advocacy.

Officers & Directors

Alan Manning – Milford, CT
President

Alan is deeply committed to the notion that patient safety is the foundation of all patient centered care initiatives. He believes we need to challenge the status quo of what it means to deliver safe and quality care by including patients in every aspect of their decision making. As the Chief Operating Officer at Planetree, Alan supports the advancement of an organization that has promoted patient centered care since 1979. Alan and his wife, Vickie, are also the co-founders of Kisses from Katie, Inc., a non-profit dedicated to “taking the edge off” for critically ill children, their families, and caregivers. The organization was founded in honor of Katie Manning, Alan and Vickie’s daughter, who was born with a rare congenital heart defect that ultimately led to her death. Alan is excited to help create positive change in healthcare.

Jean Rexford – Redding CT
Secretary and Treasurer

Jean was the founder and executive director of the Connecticut Center for Patient Safety until the end of 2014. She has now joined our board and will also serve as a senior advisor to CTCPS. Jean represents the patient/public voice on national health care committees as well as participates on state committees addressing the needs and rights of patients.

Gus Velez  – Guilford, CT
Immediate Past President

Gus is a victim turned survivor of medical malpractice. His lifestyle involves working each day as an amputee and accepting the challenges that come with the territory. Overcoming what he can and doing as much as he can with the life he has been given, he has kept his family values in place by getting married and creating a family with the support of his wife and two daughters.

Sandy Cayo – Guilford, CT
Board Member

Lisa Freeman – Fairfield CT
Executive Director

Lisa has been a patient safety advocate for over 20 years. Since 2010, she has taken numerous courses in patient safety and healthcare quality and has represented the patient voice and perspective at conferences and panels, holds a public seat on the CT Board of Nursing, and seats on several hospital patient and family councils. Until recently, Lisa served as a board member at the Connecticut Center for Patient Safety. Currently, she belongs to a number of state and national patient advocacy organizations, is and has been a member of various expert panels at the National Quality Forum, is currently a member on PCORI’s Improving Healthcare Systems Advisory Panel and is a faculty member at the Academy for Emerging Patient Safety Leaders: The Telluride Experience where the attendees are medical, health science, graduate nursing students and resident physicians. By representing the patient voice, making sure that the patient perspective is part of all health care conversations, and by working together with all stakeholders, Lisa is committed to moving the bar and improving patient safety across the board. Years ago, after a serious medical error occurred during her husband’s surgery, Lisa became his full-time caregiver for the remaining 18 years of his life. During this time, she learned the ins and outs of our healthcare system first hand. In 2014, Lisa was named one of 25 of the Nation’s Best Practices in Patient and Family Engagement by the Caregiver Action Network. On January 1, 2015, she assumed the role of Executive Director of the Connecticut Center for Patient Safety.